Sadie Dotson Hurst (July 27, 1857 – January 17, 1952) was an American politician who served as a member of the Nevada Assembly, the first woman elected to the Nevada Legislature.

Sadie D. Hurst
Member of the Nevada Assembly
In office
January 1919 – 1920
Personal details
Born
Sadie Dotson

July 27, 1857
Iowa, U.S.
DiedJanuary 17, 1952
Pasadena, California, U.S.
SpouseHorton Hurst
Children2

Early life

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Sadie Dotson was born in Iowa in 1857.[1] Horton and her family relocated to Reno, Nevada in the early-1900s.

Career

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Endorsed by the Nevada State Journal,[2] she was the first woman elected to the Nevada Legislature (R-Washoe).[3] When the legislature met in special session on February 7, 1919 to ratify the Federal Suffrage Amendment, it was Hurst who presented the resolution. She had a further distinction of being the first woman to preside over a state Legislature during the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.[4] At the time, she was not only Nevada's first assemblywoman but also its only one, having been picked by the Women Citizens' Club of Reno, to bring women into the legislature.[4] She also was the member of the Nevada Legislature who presented the bill to raise the age of consent for girls from 16 to 18, a bill which passed both houses and was signed by the Governor.

Hurst lost her 1920 bid for re-election, and eventually moved to California with her sons, where they established a manufacturing plant in Escondido.

Personal life

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While still in Iowa, Hurst had two children with her husband, Horton Hurst. Hurst died in Pasadena, California in 1952.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Sadie Dotson Hurst (1857-1952)". National Women's History Museum. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  2. ^ Moreno, Richard (1998). The Historical Nevada Magazine: Outstanding Historical Features from the Pages of Nevada Magazine. University of Nevada Press. pp. 120–. ISBN 978-1-890136-06-2.
  3. ^ "Fact Sheet" (PDF). Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau. November 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  4. ^ a b Blackwell, Alice Stone (1919). The Woman Citizen (Public domain ed.). Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission. pp. 797, 1009–.
  5. ^ "SADIE DOTSON HURST – Nevada Women's History Project". www.nevadawomen.org. Retrieved 2020-04-20.